Chapter 38: Collapse

“Law, where are you going?” Cleo said as she looked back behind her. “Come on, we have to get going”.

“No, go. I’ll hold them off here,” Laurence replied. He stepped down and pushed his hammer-formed shield out, blocking the entire stairway below him. Without a second thought, he sent tendrils of mana into the sides of the wall and forced thick chunks of rock to close off the airspace above them, turning back and looking at Cleo he smiled. “I’ll be there as soon as Yun is done. I promise”.

She frowned and a fire sprung around her hand. “You better be, Law,” she whispered before running up the stairs.

As Cleo left, Laurence relaxed. He was not afraid, but rather he was excited. He could feel the darkness inside him boiling and bubbling just below the surface, but he did not quash it. He had people he needed to protect, and to do so he would have to pull out all the stops.

The Lupe assailants had been striking Laurence’s shield for the entire time he was standing there, but the damage done to it was negligible. Any strike against it seemed to slide off and spiral away into the sides of the wall or the roof that now hovered above their heads, but this did not deter them. Instead they took several steps back in unison and began building up to something. Laurence stared through his shield, watching them make an arrow formation and collect their mana in the paws of the Lupe at the head of the arrow. Moments passed by and as they did, Laurence could not help but feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Whatever they were building up to it was dangerous, and something that Hod could not protect laurence against.

He could see that their channelling and collection would complete in moments, so without any notice he began moving his shield towards them, blocking off the entrance to the stairs completely. In unison the Lupe soldiers stepped back, raised their arms as if they were about to throw a javelin, and performed the throwing action with all their might. The air shook and instantly a spear of light shot out of the hand of the Lupe at the head of the arrow. It grew and grew until it was the same width as Laurence’s shield, but the power contained within was condensed so tightly that the normally invisible streaks of mana were a fluorescent blue that was almost blinding to the eye.

Laurence cried out, and keeping the rotating shield in front of him, moved out of the way as much as he could. Unfortunately, Laurence felt the spear of mana connect with his shield and he was pushed into the stone wall by the force of the attack. The stone and mortar cracked under his momentum and he made a human sized dent in the very walls that he was using to block off the Lupe with.

He stumbled out covered in dust, with no shield to protect himself or the stairway anymore, and could only watch in pain as six Lupe hunters sprinted up the stairs after his friends. Summoning Jormugand back into his hands, Laurence growled. “You’re going to regret doing that,” he said, feeling the darkness within him slowly take hold and his self control slowly disappearing behind a mask of rage. He left behind the point he was guarding and instead ran into the middle of the fourteen Lupe left behind, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Gamaliel!” he shouted, and a tornado seemed to spring up behind him as the mana was leached out of his body. He swung his hammer, rotating and never stopping it from moving. With every heavy contact it made against one of the Lupe it knocked them into the tornado that was following Laurence’s wake, forcing them to collide uncontrollably with each other and any debris that had been picked up by the tornado in its path.

With each strike that Laurence connected he could feel himself pick up speed, and he began to see the faint after images that he had been toying with before. He could feel that he was approaching something, but there was no real time to dwell on it. Instead he focussed on collecting the Lupe in his tornado one after the other, until finally there was only the leader of the arrowhead formation that had struck him before left on the ground.

He swung the hammer and with each pass and miss that fell against the Lupe, his swings became faster and faster, until it was difficult for either Laurence or the Lupe to see the blows. They were becoming mixed within countless afterimages that were swirling around the bodies of the two fighters. Finally, as Laurence’s vision was completely filled with his own afterimages something clicked within his head, and he felt more mana flood out of his body.

“Netzach!” he yelled, before yelling out even louder, “Naamah!” For a single moment the afterimages all seemed to solidify and collect into one strike, Laurence’s simple overhead strike that was built upon the momentum of the tens and hundreds of strikes before his current one. Instantly they disappeared and his hammer hit the Lupe in the chest. His flesh and bones cracked as spears of dirt, mangled flesh, coagulated blood and splintered bone shot out of the soldier’s chest, up his body and out into the ground behind him. He could only let out a strangled scream as his body was consumed by the strike and turned into an attack targeted at no one in particular.

Laurence flagged for a moment, and the tornado that had built up behind him dispersed, letting the thoroughly bruised and battered Lupe clansmen caught in it escape. Falling to his knees, Laurence held his pointer ring in his hands and activated the stored mana within. There was a popping sound and then he felt the rush of new mana fill his body. It was not quite full, but it was enough for him to continue fighting. He had used the most mana in making traps that the Lupe had broken through, so he had not been anywhere near full strength at the beginning of the fight, however using four of the forms of his Kabballah had drained him greatly. He had to recover and fight. He had to. There was too much on the line if he did not.

Grinning maniacally, he turned and looked at the dishevelled Lupe hunters that had fallen behind him. With eyes wide, he licked his front teeth and breathed out deeply. “Next!” he shouted, raising his hammer once again.

He began spiralling his hammer once more, slowly at first, but as he looked at the quickly reorganising enemy in front of him the speed quickened. His hammer was spinning and he was waiting, waiting or the soldiers to even dare to come close. He was concerned about fighting one against twenty, but against thirteen he had much better odds. His odds were still not good, but he believed he actually had a chance against the group in front of him. They were beginning to fall apart, and without the leaders there to guide them they would not function as perfectly as they had been.

Unfortunately for Laurence, the group seemed to be rife with capable people and they split into three groups to surround him. Opting for a hit and run maneuver, the largest group, of five, ran towards Laurence and began attacking him with reckless abandon, but the moment that he began to retaliate they pulled back and he was struck from behind by the first group of four. In the same form, he was about to stroke out at the second group when the third and final group slammed into him from the side, forcing him off balance once more.

He screamed out in rage, but he could not stop the rotating stings that the Lupe squads were making. Wherever his hammer swung he was a moment too late or a fraction too slow, but he did not give in. His hammer began picking up speed once more as he swung out, and the after images appeared once again, becoming more and more numerous as the Lupe soldiers performed their hit and run tactics. As the after images became even more numerous, Laurence felt like his speed of progression with the Kabballah was becoming incomparably fast, yet there was still something he was missing from the next step. He could not tell what it was, but he knew that without a doubt it was the puzzle piece that would save his life. He felt more and more nervous as he knew that he had to find it.

He was continuing to defend against one group when the form of the attacks changed. He had begun to flag and the Lupe could smell blood. Facing the group of five approaching him, he was about to engage when suddenly he was hit from behind by both groups of four. The barrage of strikes left Laurence reeling and he fell into the waiting maw of the group of five. Blood flew as the mana made weapons of the Lupe tore into his skin and within moments he was down on the ground, bleeding heavily out of a severed left arm and numerous wounds all over his body.

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